Hartwell fishing report: Water temp is way up from last year. On the low the water temp is 49 and on the high I have seen 61... surprise and yes 61. I actually couldn't belive it myself. I have been mixing it up for a while now. One day I may just crappie fish, the next it might be dragging umbrella riggs or pulling free lines. Now the down rod bite with live herring has been slow over all the warmer water has helped us of latly. I have been over a few deep primary points and have found some large schools of spotted Bass with Large mouth mixed in. 15-27 ft seems to be the best of it. For Stripers, I'm catching some good fish on Free lined Herring and Gizzard Shad in the backs creeks. Crappie are bitting very well. Try fishing 15-25 foot over brush 6-15 ft down with small minnows.

Water temp: 48-52. After these last few days the surface water has made it up to the low 50's. Fishing was great the last couple days for Crappie. Crappie are biting very well. I'm finding most of my crappie still in 15-25 ft of water 6-15 ft down. Small crappie minnows are working well over brush piles. Now I caught my biggest crappie of the year yesterday.. I didn't weigh it, but It came in at 15 inches! I put her back to swim another day! As for the bass, I found a good school that was chasing shad up a major creek in 17 ft of water. We were able to catch a couple pulling umbrella rigs to start, but the best of the bass fishing was in 8-17 ft of water off a couple primary points. Some of those bass boys would die to have those spots for a tournament! As for stripers, I'm catching but not filling coolers. Over all I have been after crappie most of all. Most of my stripers have been caught on small bait while crappie fishing or by pulling umbrella rigs. If I see a few birds working an area.Tight linesCapt. Steve 864-353-3438

Fish and Chips! Boy is it hard to beat fried Crappie! I spent the day yesterday insearch of new brush piles! I'd have to say it was successfull! Now finding a new crappie hole is a lot of searching, finding and trying. It takes a lot of time. With the water around 7ft from full pool, it is a great time to ride around areas you like to crappie fish and mark brush piles that are in the shallows. Bass fisherman and Crappie fisherman, thanks for your hard work in putting them in the lake. Boy do some of them make good fishing spots. I think I marked at least 10-15 new Brush piles yesterday that were in 8-10 ft of water on the old Hummingbird. Now right now that is a little shallow in water depth to catch a big mess of Crappie, but if the water goes up quick or closer to spawn those brush piles will be worth there weight in Crappie.

As for the water Temp I had 48 degrees in the morning and in places by mid afternoon had 52 in some areas in the back of the creeks. I had to look hard for deeper brush, the best being Brush that I found in 15 ft of water. I was catching some crappie only 5 ft down. Minnows and jigs worked good. Seemed that the jig actually caught a few of the bigger fish of the day. Matter of fact I think it could have got ugly on at least one of the brush piles. Over all, I still think if you has a good brush pile in 15-25 ft it should have Crappie on it this time of year and they should bite good all day for you. GOOD LUCKTight LinesCapt. Steve Pie

About the Capt.

Capt. Steve is a Registered US Coast Guard Capt. Being 32 years old, Capt Steve has made a living fishing for over 12 years. Capt. Steve has logged many hours on the US and International waters fishing for Salmon in the rivers of Alaska down to the Florida Keys after Sailfish and over to the Bahamas Blue Marlin fishing.